Using a 256GB micro SD Card with SD2Vita at ux0:
This tutorial assumes that you already have a PS Vita or PS TV that are capable of running homebrew software, and that you already have VitaShell and h-encore installed and know how to use them. It also assumes that you know how to transfer VPK files to the system and install them. If you’re using a PS TV, it assumes that you know how to FTP files to and from the PS TV with the FTP VitaShell feature. If you don’t know what I’m talking about at all, you can follow Part 1 and Part 2 of my previous set of tutorials for the PS Vita, or my single tutorial for the PS TV.
I will reference the PS Vita method in this tutorial, but it will work for the PS TV as well. Note that in sections where I mention directly connecting the Vita to your PC via USB, you’ll follow the same instructions but simply connect to the PS TV via FTP instead. If you’re doing this on a PS TV that you softmodded yourself, you should be comfortable doing that by now.
Before You Begin
Before you begin you’ll need a few things.
- Ensure you are running the latest copy of VitaShell. Old versions can cause issues with this process.
- You’ll need a micro SD card that’s equivalent size or larger to your PS Vita memory card. Since large Vita cards aren’t common, this shouldn’t be an issue.
- You’ll need an SD2Vita adapter, which adapts a microSD card to the gamecard slot on your Vita. More on this below.
- You’ll need a Vita that has already been hacked and can run homebrew code. You can do this by following Part 1 and Part 2 of this guide. Ensure everything is working before following this guide.
- You’ll need to ensure that all of your .skprx plug-ins are located in the ur0:tai folder and not the ux0:tai folder and that ur0:tai\config.txt does not have any references to plug-ins on ux0:. If you followed my guide to softmod your Vita, this shouldn’t be an issue. If you have plug-ins installed on ux0:tai, you’ll have to move them and update the ur0:tai\config.txt file accordingly.
SD2Vita Adapters and microSD Cards
The latest version of SD2Vita adapters at the time of this writing is version 5.0. Contrary to some things I’ve read online from only a few short months ago, SD2Vita does work with the latest version (3.68) of the Vita firmware now. When you buy a SD2Vita adapter, just ensure you get a version 5.0 card. There are many of them for sale for less than $6 shipped on eBay. In addition to the SD2Vita adapter, you’ll also need a microSD card. I would recommend getting a U1 or U3 speed micro SD card. The microSD adapter is not compatible with UHS-III, so getting a V-rated micro SD card won’t yield you any speed gains, it’ll just be much more expensive.
Install the TF Card Plug-in Tool
Launch VitaShell on the Vita, ensure it’s in USB mode, and press Select to enable the USB connection. We’re going to download and install a utility that will let us mount the SD2Vita card as either ux0: or uma0:, and even switch between the two.
Download the latest version of TF.Card.Plugin.Tool.ENG.vpk from this site: https://github.com/theheroGAC/TF-Card-Plugin-Tool/releases.
Using VitaShell, install the VPK on your Vita. We’ll use this application later.
Preparing and Formatting the SD Card
Insert the micro SD card that you’ll be using with your SD2Vita adapter in to your PC’s SD card slot via an adapter, or via a USB micro SD card reader. Download Win32DiskImager and install it. You’ll also need a 1024 byte file, renamed with the .img extension, that contains 1024 zero characters. I have uploaded a file here that you can use.
Use Win32DiskImager to write the blank.img file to your SD card. In order to not overwrite any other external drives that you have plugged in to the PC, you should remove them before launching Win32DiskImager and ensure that the only card (or external USB device) you have inserted is the one you want to write to, just to be safe. Choose the drive letter that your micro SD card is mounted under from the interface, browse for the path to the blank.img file, select it, and click the Write button.
This should write the contents of blank.img (zeroes) to the first 1024 bytes of the micro SD card. We’re going to format the remaining disk space with the extfat file system by way of the Windows disk format utility.
Remove the micro SD card from the computer and then re-insert it. Since we shimmed a 1024 byte partition at the beginning of the drive, we broke the original partition and Windows should be telling you that your micro SD card has to be formatted before using it. That’s fine. Choose Format Disk and set the File system type to extFAT, and make sure the Allocation unit size is set to Default allocation size. Ensure Quick Format is selected, that the volume label is blank, and click Start.
Formatting should be very fast. The micro SD card should now be prepped to use in the Vita, so we’ll now need to copy the entire contents of our existing Vita memory card over to the micro SD card.
Backup Vita Memory Card to the PC
At this point you’ll want to make a settings change in Windows Explorer. In order to see all of the files on the Vita’s memory card when we mount it in Windows via VitaShell, we’ll need to enable the ability to see hidden and system files. To do this, press Windows Key + E to open Explorer. Click the View tab and click the arrow under Options. Choose Change folder and search options from the pull-down menu. In the dialog that appears, click the View tab, scroll down and click the radio button next to Show hidden files, folders and drives and uncheck the box next to Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended). Click Ok. If you don’t do this step you won’t be able to copy all of your files from the Vita’s memory card to the micro SD card and your SD2Vita install will fail.
Launch VitaShell on the Vita, ensure it’s in USB mode, and press Select to enable the USB connection. Connect it to a PC and open it in Explorer. You’ll now see a bunch of files/folders that we couldn’t see before, since most of them are hidden or marked as system files. Create a directory somewhere on your PC that will serve as a backup, and copy all of these files and directories to that backup folder. Depending on what you have installed, this could take a long time.
When the backup is complete, disconnect your Vita from the PC.
Mounting the micro SD Card with the S2Vita Adapter
Before we go any further you’ll want to take the micro SD card you formatted and insert it into your SD2Vita adapter. Insert the adapter in to the Vita’s gamecard slot and launch the TF Card Plug-In Tool we installed earlier.
Select the first option SD2VITA = uma0 / MemoryCard = ux0 and press Circle. Press Circle again to confirm the install, and press Circle a third time to reboot the Vita.
What this does for you is to automatically install a .skprx plugin called StorageManager to ur0: and properly configures it to automatically mount the sd2vita card at system boot. It also writes a config file that tells StorageManager where the VIta memory card should be mounted and where the SD2Vita card should be mounted. You could do this manually, but this small app makes our lives that much easier.
When the system reboots, don’t forget to launch h-encore and install HENKAKU, and then launch VitaShell.
From within VitaShell navigate to the root of the device (“…” option) so you can see all mounted volumes. You should see uma0: with the correct size of your micro SD card shown. Success!
Copying Vita Memory Card Backup to the micro SD Card
Make sure your Vita is connected to the PC with USB. Press Start to bring up the VitaShell menu. Arrow down to USB Device and arrow right until it says sd2vita. Press Circle to go back out of the menu and then press Select. Your Vita will again be mounted as a drive on your PC, but this time you should see the contents of the micro SD card, which should be empty.
At this point you’ll want to take the entire contents of the Vita memory card backup that we made above and copy them all to the micro SD card. Once everything is copied, you’ll want to delete your tai folder from the micro SD card.
On a side note – I would suggest keeping a copy of your Vita memory card backed up to your PC just in case something goes wrong with the SD2Vita adapter and you need to restore your system to a new SD card or Vita memory card. To save a lot of space you could remove all of the PCSG* directories (except PCSG90096) from the \app folder. This will remove all of your actual game backups and would reduce the size of the backup significantly.
Swapping SD2Vita to the ux0: Mount Point
Exit VitaShell and launch the TF Card Plug-In Tool we installed earlier. This time we’ll choose the option SD2VITA = ux0 / MemoryCard = uma0. Reboot the Vita when asked and make sure everything comes up ok. In VitaShell you’ll see that ux0: now matches the size of your micro SD card, and your Vita Memory Card should be mounted as uma0:.
Note that if you have a “fat” version of the Vita (the one with the OLED screen), you will need to keep both your memory card and SD2Vita inserted for the system to work properly. This is because HENkaku requires a memory card to properly run, since it’s initialized before the SD2Vita driver can be loaded to mount the SD2Vita card. If you remove your Vita memory card, you’ll boot to a Vita home screen with no bubbles except the factory installed applications. You will not be able to launch h-encore or VitaShell (or any other software) because the bubbles for them won’t exist.
Knowing that, however, you can launch VitaShell (or connect via USB to a Windows PC) and delete all of the large games files from uma0:app. This will free up almost all of the space on your Vita card to use for other things. I would not recommend wiping the Vita card completely, or removing any other files aside from games you installed in the app directory, as if you do this there will be no way to recover the Vita should something happen to your micro SD card.
Games installed by PKGj will always install to ux0: (which is now your micro SD card), and generally all of your Vita games will run from there was well. You do have the option to create new directories on uma0: to store other files and non-Vita games and things though.
Conclusion
That’s it! The SD2Vita adapter is a pretty sweet piece of equipment for less than $10 shipped, and will let you get the most out of your Vita without having to spend a ton of money on Sony’s proprietary Vita memory cards. I imported a 64GB Vita memory card from Japan years ago for around $100, and a quick search reveals that they’re still fetching that price today. Ridiculous. Using a micro SD card is much cheaper and much more convenient should you ever need to replace it, as they’re everywhere.
If you enjoyed this tutorial and would like to see more, please feel free to share this article on social media, comment below letting me know what else you’d like to see, and follow me on Twitter @JROlmstead.
thanks man you save my day ..
Thanks for the tutorial mate! Worked like a charm!
hi, so I did the back up, but when I transferred it to the micro sd card (sd2vita) there was some files which were “damaged”.. so the pc was unable to copy,
so i omited those… now, seems like all the app/vpk files appear, but most give error (C1-2738-0) only molecular shell works…
i was able to delete tai from sd2vita, then swap using tf tool, but now tf tools won’t work.
so, here is some more information ;since I can use molecular shell I tried to install a small vpk i had in ux0… = error 0x80010016…any solution please
pdtta:some of the files i skipped (not copy back where something like “psp2updat” or something…?…
Not sure… I’m going to assume the files that weren’t able to be copied were needed? The only time I’ve seen the C1-xxx-x error when trying to launch a game is when I didn’t go in and run h-encore and re-apply HENkaku before running a game. That has to be done every time you boot the Vita before launching copied games.
This is great thank you. Only guide I found that mentioned changing to SD2Vita within USB in VitaShell. I couldn’t figure out why my SD2 card would not show up on PC.
Thanks mate!
so far the best article i’ve ran across on SD2Vita. all of the other one’s leave out steps and don’t even talk about the tf tool. thanks again!
All’s fine as you have mentioned.
But:
One problem!
My game freezes upon loading just 1-2 mkns after running of i use sd2vita … no issues when games run via ps vita’s default proprietary mem card …
My vita adapter is version 3
Sd card: samsung evo plus 256gb U3
What to do: so that game and system don’t freeze when using sd2vita card ..
Reply soon …
I used exfat formatting method via windows …
—-
Someone said format into exfat via linux (ubuntu) – and not windows- after loading zzblank.com via windows .. i did that; even did same thing via mac – formatting sd card into exfat – both cases: ps vita didn’t even recognize the sd card ..
System info: memory card showed – – ; instead of the apacity
Windows method – did recognize the card; but keeps on freezi g after a minute or 2 …. – as if sd card is corrupt (which it isn’t – works fine when used as a pen drive via card reader on windows ….
Could my sd2vita ver 3 adapter be corroupt instead ???
Need help!!
I’m not sure what would be causing that. I’ve not had that issue with either of my SD2Vita adapters (one in a Vita and one in a PS TV)
hi, nice tutorial, my issue is after its done, I don’t see my sd2vita card. only memory card, im on 3.63 using henkaku and vitashell 1.98. hope someone can help!!!
only time I can see the sd2vita working is when I change the usb loading to pc on vitashell as sd2vita, it shows on pc the data from the sd2vita in the game drive on vita. (does that make sense?)
You are a life saver! I tried 4 or 5 other tutorials, but they didn’t work.
Tips for others:
-You can still transfer all of the files using FTP, it just takes longer.
-I had to format the card using Windows. I tried several methods unsuccessfully on my MAC.
-The TF Card Link tool doesn’t appear to install on the internal memory card, so you’ll need the proprietary PS Vita memory card. (I’m still playing with this one trying to get it to install to internal memory).
Hi op I have a 256gb sandisk installed, problem is, the free storage reported by the vita is around 100gb less than what it should be. I have around a 115 GB of data on it, but it’s showing 215gb full, which I’m certain isn’t true. Any ideas what the issue is please?
Sounds like this may be a common problem. See other comments here. It could be that the max a Vita will see is 128GB. My SD card turned out to be fake (thanks scammers), so I ended up using a 64GB card I had lying around.
The issue is the cluster size when you format micro sd. I Made the size 64 down from the default of 128 and it now works. Downside is load time is a few seconds longer here and there, but works great. Stumbled across the solution on an unrelated Google page. Update the guide giving this info. Storage on drive more over 100gb free as it should have been.
Hi I have a version 5 s2vita and a SanDisk 256gb class 10. I stuck a 110 GB of games on my memory card but the vita says only 15gb free (230gb full) I’m certain no other data is on the memory card. I’m running enso 3.65. anyone know why this error is occuring.
Sounds like this may be a common problem. See other comments here. It could be that the max a Vita will see is 128GB. My SD card turned out to be fake (thanks scammers), so I ended up using a 64GB card I had lying around.
Hi, I don’t know if you still use a Vita on a regular basis but I have some questions.
First, this guide is still great today, I’ve installed CFWs on many Vita’s now and come back to it every now and then.
I’ve been trying to find if there are technical limitations with large file transfers with sd2vita or the vita itself that are known and avoidable, I’ve “prepped” like 6 Samsung Evo+ 256gb (shown as 238gb) (using a usb card reader) and every time I’ve tried to copy directly huge transfers of games, even if no errors during transfers, once in the Vita it’ll mess up the remaining space to almost 0 and list 190gb+ of data as “other” in the content manager. In the PC it reads just fine but most times I have to reformat it and start over. If I use vitashell it’ll be fine with games but I had this happen with videos and photos too and it’s 3x times slower than the card reader. Even one card got back 80gb just by un mounting and remounting it in vitashell.
So now I just transfer a couple games at a time and refresh the live area to avoid having to start all over again.
But I just read about a 2016 technique from GbA forums, involves putting game files in a PSP save folder in your PC folder used by qcma and use the manager to copy it to the console, plus vitashell to move and rename files to proper place.
Do you think this worth trying to transfer 100gb+ or the error I consistently get with large transfers will still happen?
Are they real 256GB cards? Mine turned out to be fake. It was really a 32GB card with its firmware hacked to look like a 256GB card. I could transfer about 30GB of data and then it would self-corrupt the card and show as full. Here’s a good link for that. https://www.ghacks.net/2018/03/14/8-tools-to-detect-fake-storage-devices/ Personally I dug up a 64GB card after my 256GB card turned out to be fake, so I’ve been using that. I don’t have experience with cards in the Vita with a higher capacity than that. Sorry if this doesn’t help.
Yes those card are beyond suspicion, as a matter of fact I think their superior transfer speed might be responsible for read/write errors and also make card readers go bonkers, I’ve noticed in the past that after a long transfer the adapter gets quite hot.
Also on a side note, I’ve noticed that gamesd has been updated a few days ago, storage mgr is a fork of gamesd.
I’ve switched both my Vita’s to gamesd, I’ve already been advised in the past to use it on discord Vita hacking server.
It is simpler to install, has better compatibility overall.
I’ve helped someone on Reddit who had problems after getting out of standby mode, after checking various things with that person I advised him to switch to gamesd as his setup was correct in every way.
I just got news that his Vita got out of standby after 36hrs and he could launch apps without crash when he used to have to force reboot it.
Only change made is the switch to gamesd over storage mgr.
Do u always have to run h-encore (henkaku) after a cold reboot? Isnt the hack permanent, also after a reboot? Sorry new to this…
Yes, you do unfortunately. I have read that there is a new exploit out that’s persistent but I havenn’t played with it yet.
i have a ps vita 3.68 and i want to hack it my memory card is about 8gig and i have a sd card of about 124gig i want to know if i go use both to store in games and use it at the same time
and how can i downgrade my vita and which is the best version to degrade to
Best version is 3.60. Have a look for Midoru tutorial and use that to downgrade.
Thanks man, you saved my day! I was close to downgrade my device and then, the magic happened!
Thank you for the best tutorial!
It’s weird, for me it sees my sd card in Vitashell but when I swap it so that is UX0 and restart it does starts up in factory settings, so I have to turn off, take sd card out and turn on again to get vitashell etc back. Insert sd card again and vitashell sees it.
Not sure what the problem is
For cards greater than or equal to 200GB in size, do not use default allocation size, but rather 64KiB. (The default for such cards is 128KiB, do not stick with this.) This will avoid the free space errors a few people here have been running into. Unavoidable bug in the Vita storage stack. You may want to run occasional disk checks on the memory card, too.